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Chris Morris (satirist)
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Christopher J Chris Morris is an English comedian, writer, director, actor, voice actor, and producer. He is known for his humour, surrealism, and controversial subject matter. His tendency to avoid the media spotlight has seen him become one of the more enigmatic figures in British comedy, in the early 1990s, Morris teamed up with his radio producer, Armando Iannucci, to create On the Hour, a satire of news programmes. This was expanded into a spin off, The Day Today, which launched the career of Steve Coogan. Morris further developed the satirical news format with Brass Eye, which lampooned celebrities whilst focusing on such as crime. For many, the apotheosis of Morriss career was a Brass Eye special and it quickly became one of the most complained about programmes in British television history, leading the Daily Mail to describe him as the most loathed man on TV. Meanwhile, Morriss postmodern sketch and ambient music radio show Blue Jam helped him to gain a cult following and he went on to win a BAFTA for Best Short Film after expanding a Blue Jam sketch into My Wrongs 8245–8249 &117, which starred Paddy Considine. Blue Jam was adapted into the TV series Jam and this was followed by Nathan Barley, a sitcom written in collaboration with a then little-known Charlie Brooker that satirised hipsters, which had low ratings but found success upon its DVD release. Morris followed this by joining the cast of the Graham Linehan sitcom The IT Crowd, in 2010, Morris directed his first feature-length film, Four Lions, which satirised Islamic terrorism through a group of inept British Pakistanis. Reception of the film was positive, earning Morris his second BAFTA. Since 2012, he has directed four episodes of Iannuccis political comedy Veep and appeared onscreen in The Double and he has two younger brothers, including theatre director Tom Morris. From an early age he was a prankster, and also had a passion for radio, from the age of 10 he was educated at Stonyhurst College, an independent Jesuit boarding school in Lancashire. He went to study zoology at the University of Bristol, where he gained a 2,1, on graduating, Morris pursued a career as a musician in various bands, for which he played the bass guitar. He then went to work for Radio West, a radio station in Bristol. He then took up a news traineeship with BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and he also spent time in early 1987 hosting a 2–4pm afternoon show and finally ended up presenting Saturday morning show I. T. In July 1987, he moved on to BBC Radio Bristol to present his own show No Known Cure, the show was surreal and satirical, with odd interviews conducted with unsuspecting members of the public. He was fired from Bristol in 1990 after talking over the news bulletins, in 1988 he also joined, from its launch, Greater London Radio. He presented The Chris Morris Show on GLR until 1993, when one show got suspended after a sketch was broadcast involving a child outing celebrities, in 1991, Morris joined Armando Iannuccis spoof news project On the Hour

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On the Hour
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On the Hour was a British radio programme that parodied current affairs broadcasting, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1991 and 1992. On the Hour featured the first appearance of Coogans character Alan Partridge as the Sports Desk reporter and it did fool many people, with some listeners ringing in to complain about how the anchor treated his guests. The programme also utilised editing of out-of-context sound-clips and prank phone calls, episodes would often feature a main storyline interspersed between the various news items. Twelve episodes were made and broadcast in 1991 and 1992, the final episode of On the Hour closed with Morris introducing a set of headlines with the line And there is still just time to part the beef curtains on tomorrows news. Running throughout the episode was the announcement that On the Hour would be taking over all of Radio 4 to transmit 24-hour Perma-News. On the Hour was named Best Radio Comedy at the 1992 British Comedy Awards, the On the Hour team subsequently made a television series called The Day Today, which retained the same regular cast and several characters from On the Hour. Combative and overly zealous, h believes in the infallibility of the news, bombastically delivering slogans like Man is only 90% water, and These facts are ear-shaped, lets ram them home. Morris frequently talks over his guests and does not realise or will not admit when he has the person on the other end of the phone. Morris reprised his newsman persona for The Day Today and Brass Eye, Roger Blatt/Michael Blatt, Roger Blatt is the Disaster correspondent for a train crash report, the identically-voiced Michael Blatt is the Strategy correspondent for the On the Hour War Special. Wayne Carr, Cloyingly-upbeat and smug DJ with a penchant for contracting words, waynes reports include inappropriately-upbeat coverage of a train crash disaster, an exposé on hidden messages in pop records, and a chinnywag about endangered animals. The character of Wayne Carr was retained from Morriss previous radio projects and his name is a reference to the abusive term wanker. Morris later used the Continuity Announcers voice for the national emergencies propaganda reel in the episode of The Day Today. Lionel Cosgrave, An Everyman who appears in news reports. Lionels age varies according to each report – sometimes he is a youngster, lionel is usually presented as a victim. Rosy presents absurd environmental-themed news in the segment Green Desk and this segment is accompanied by new-age music, including synthesised whale song. Rosy later appeared in The Day Today, although her segment was re-titled Enviromation, jacques Œuf, Appears in two episodes as a French counterpart to Wayne Carr. Like Carr, his name is a slang term for masturbation. Highly incompetent, reporting dubious facts and figures before being forced by Morris to admit that he hasnt actually read the reports he is ostensibly presenting and he later appeared in The Day Today

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Why Bother? (radio show)
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Why Bother. is a comedy radio series made for BBC Radio 3, consisting of five 10-minute-long spoof interviews between Chris Morris and Peter Cooks character Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling. Recorded in late 1993, the show was originally broadcast from 10–14 January 1994, Cook received the sole writing credit whilst Morris also produced the series, although the pair ad-libbed the majority of the dialogue, which Morris then edited. Morris played a variation on the abrasive interviewer character he had perfected on On the Hour, the short pieces provide further insights into the Streeb-Greebling character that Cook had created for Not Only. Reviewing the CD release in 1999, The Guardian wrote this flimsy collection of five short interviews leaves you wondering why you did bother, eels, Love and Guns Bears Christ Prisoner of War Drugs etc

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The Chris Morris Music Show
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The Chris Morris Music Show was a radio show presented by satirist Chris Morris and broadcast on BBC Radio 1 between June and December 1994. The show sparked controversy on several occasions, most notably when Chris Morris falsely announced the death of politician Michael Heseltine, each episode of The Chris Morris Music Show lasted approximately one hour, except for the final episode on 26 December 1994, which was two hours. The Chris Morris Music Show was normally broadcast on Wednesday evenings between 9pm and 10pm, episodes were aired each week between 1 June 1994 and 21 December 1994, with the exception of 13 and 21 July, when the show was suspended after the Michael Heseltine controversy. For some weeks, repeats were aired rather than new shows, in the final show, broadcast on Boxing Day 1994, Chris Morris falsely announced another death, this time of television and radio personality Jimmy Savile. In response to the show, Savile sued the BBC and claimed that the report had ruined his Christmas

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The Day Today
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The Day Today is a British comedy television show which parodies television current affairs programmes, broadcast in 1994 on BBC2. For The Day Today, Peter Baynham joined the writing team, the principal cast of On the Hour was retained for The Day Today. The Day Today is composed of six episodes and a selection of shorter. The six half-hour episodes were originally broadcast from 19 January to 23 February 1994 on BBC2, the Day Today has won many awards, including Morris winning the 1994 British Comedy Award for Best Newcomer. All six episodes are available on BBC DVD, having previously issued on VHS. Each episode is presented as a news programme, and the episodes rely on a combination of ludicrous fictitious news stories, covered with a serious. Each episode revolves around one or two stories, which are pursued throughout the programme, along with a host of other stories usually only briefly referred to. The final episode features reports from the fictitious documentary The Office, other non-news segments of the programme include the occasional physical cartoons of current events set in the studio. The programme occasionally features producer Armando Iannucci and writer Peter Baynham, John Thomson, Graham Linehan, Tony Haase, and Minnie Driver also appear. Michael Alexander St John provides the voiceover stings, as he did in On the Hour, much of the programmes humour derives from its excessively brash style of reporting, and its unnecessarily complex format. Morris presents aggressively, often arguing with reporters and guests on-air, the programme frequently lambasts Conservative government politicians in office at the time of the programmes production. Those repeatedly lampooned by the series include John Major, Michael Heseltine, Chris Patten, Douglas Hurd, Virginia Bottomley, Michael Portillo, each episode ends in a familiar style for news reports, with the camera panning out as the studio lights dim on Morris. The programme features surreal news items, examples include, Reports that explosive-packed terrorist dogs were being released in London by the IRA. These bomb dogs wreak havoc, and prompt the British police to begin executing any dog on sight and this story is accompanied by a clip of Steve Coogan impersonating a Gerry Adams-esque Sinn Féin leader, spouting rhetoric while inhaling helium to subtract credibility from his statement. Coverage of a feud between John Major and the Queen, coverage of an ongoing rail crisis, following a train trapped on the tracks in Hampshire. Trapped by a signal post, the stranded train rapidly becomes the scene of anarchy and paganism. In the fifth episode, Morris provokes a war between Hong Kong and Australia, and much of the episode revolves around the resulting conflict, subsequent reports of the war, delivered from Eastmanstown in the Upper Cataracts on the Australio-Hong-Kong border, are humorously blown out of proportion. Morris has several computers giving him the news instantly from around the world and he is always confrontational and aggressive, frequently picking fights with his staff and guests while on-air, and his efforts to resolve problems frequently make bad situations even worse

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Brass Eye
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Brass Eye is a British comedy series parodying the current affairs news programming of the mid-1990s. A series of six episodes aired on Channel 4 in 1997, the series was created by Chris Morris, written by Morris, David Quantick, Peter Baynham, Jane Bussmann, Arthur Mathews, Graham Linehan and Charlie Brooker and directed by Michael Cumming. Drugs The second episode, Drugs, has described by Professor Michael Gossop as illustrative of the ease in which anti-drug hysteria can be evoked in the United Kingdom. In the opening scene of episode, a voiceover tells viewers that there are so many drugs on the streets of Britain that not even the dealers know them all. He also explained that possession of drugs without physical contact and the exchange of drugs through a mandrill were perfectly legal in English law, in response, the Home Office minister incorrectly identified the fictitious drug Cake as a pseudonym for the hallucinogenic drug methylenedioxybenzylamphetamine. Just imagine how his mother felt, Sex In one scene of the Sex episode, Morris posed as a talk-show host who took a starkly discriminatory attitude in favour of those with Good AIDS over those with Bad AIDS. A special one-off edition of the show aired four years after the series had ended and it eventually aired on 28 July 2001. It tackled paedophilia and the panic in parts of the British media following the murder of Sarah Payne. This included an incident in 2000 in which a paediatrician in Newport had the word PAEDO daubed in yellow paint on her home, nOTWs then Editor Rebekah Brooks would years later discuss this campaign at the Leveson Inquiry. To illustrate the medias reaction to the subject, various celebrities were duped into presenting fatuous. Gary Lineker and Phil Collins endorsed a spoof charity, Nonce Sense, with Collins saying, at one point, bogus CCTV footage was shown of a paedophile attempting to seduce children by stalking the streets while disguised as a school. Lineker described paedophile text slang, stating that BALTIMORA translates to literally, labour MP Syd Rapson related that paedophiles were using an area of internet the size of Ireland. Blackwood also warned watching parents that exposure to the fumes would make their children smell like hammers, prior to the launch, an eight-year-old boy had been placed on board the spaceship with Cooke by mistake. During the programme, the studio was invaded by a fictional militant pro-paedophile activism organisation called Milit-pede, when it returned, presenter Chris Morris confronted a spokesman, Gerard Chote, who had been placed in a pillory, asking if he wanted sex with Morriss six-year-old son. Hesitantly, the spokesman refused, apologetically explaining I dont fancy him, the episode won a Broadcast magazine award in 2002. The series was repeated in 2001 to tie in with the paedophilia special, a disclaimer was also added to the Drugs episode at the request of David Amess. In a particularly infamous portrayal, Hindley was the topic of a song by a fictitious indie band called Blouse. The lyrics to part of the read, Every time I see your picture, Myra/I have to phone my latest girlfriend up and fire her/And find a prostitute who looks like you and hire her/Oh

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Jam (TV series)
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Jam was a British horror/comedy sketch show, created, written, and directed by Chris Morris. It was broadcast on Channel 4 between 23 March and 27 April 2000 and it was based on the earlier BBC Radio 1 show, Blue Jam, and consists of a series of disturbing and surreal sketches, unfolding over an ambient soundtrack. Many of the sketches re-used the original soundtracks with the actors lip-syncing their lines. Morris introduced each episode in the style of a surreal compère, reading free form poetry over a nightmarish montage, Jam was co-written by Peter Baynham, with additional material contributed by Jane Bussmann, David Quantick, Graham Linehan, Arthur Mathews, and the cast themselves. The show perplexed audiences and critics on its initial broadcast, some hailed it as breakthrough, daringly original television, while others dismissed it as merely sickening and juvenile. It came in at #26 on Channel 4s 100 Greatest Scary Moments, beating other, more examples of the horror genre, such as Carrie. The show had no opening or closing titles, the latter replaced with its web address. Instead, it would begin with a monologue by Morris. These would, to degree or other, follow a character as their nightmares are made real, or their preconceptions are shattered. Morris would then say, Then welcome, followed by a sentence, before finally announcing. The word jam would rarely be said normally, it would either be heavily distorted, spoken in a strange accent, Morris has said that he asked Channel 4 to broadcast it without a break so as to not spoil the atmosphere. Sketches often had a feel to them, the characters acting as if they were being interviewed about recent events. The series had a remix version during the 4Later slot. Its audiovisual distortions of the series introduced the musical remix concept to British television. The show received a number of complaints and was criticised by the Broadcasting Standards Commission and it is not generally as recognised as Morriss earlier, satirical TV work, and remains a cult show. Three complaints about Jam were upheld and these concerned the sketches Coffin Mistake, Sex for Houses, and Plumber Baby, as they were deemed insensitive to the bereaved and those with learning difficulties. Five of the six episodes were classified 18 by the BBFC for very strong language. Despite its content, the broadcast attracted nowhere near the controversy that the following years Brass Eye special, Paedogeddon, about media panic surrounding paedophilia and its mood was so grim that I just found it difficult to join in

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Nathan Barley
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The series of six weekly episodes began broadcasting on 11 February 2005 on Channel 4. Nathan Barley, played by Nicholas Burns, is a webmaster, guerrilla filmmaker, screenwriter, DJ and in his own words, a self-facilitating media node. Whilst desperate to convince himself and others that he is the epitome of cool, Nathan is secretly terrified he might not be. The website consists of stupid pranks caught on camera, photos of him with women and famous figures. The humour derives from the rise of both the Internet and digital media, and the assumption by publishers and broadcasters that almost any such work is worthy of attention. The series features two central characters, siblings Dan and Claire Ashcroft. Dan dislikes everything Nathan Barley stands for, while Claire seeks to highlight the plight of the citys homeless. At the same time, Claire, who wants to see herself as socially responsible. Other recurring characters include Nathans idiot flatmate Toby and the staff at Dan Ashcrofts magazine, Sugar Ape, ned Smanks and Rufus Onslatt, a pair of gormless graphic designers, and receptionist Sasha. Barley has a young assistant called Pingu. The eccentric and ludicrous Doug Rocket, founder member of The Veryphonics, Dan Ashcrofts flatmate is a DJ called Jones, who appears blissfully unaware of the antisocial cacophony he creates. Jones is played by Noel Fielding, Barratts partner in comic duo The Mighty Boosh, in the pilot of the show, characters are different from those in the actual series. The character of Claire already knows Nathan and Pingu instead of meeting them in the first episode of the series, the character of Dan is decidedly darker and gets one up on Nathan and the idiots more often. Ned Smanks and Rufus Onslatt do not appear in the pilot, makes a brief appearance and is largely the same. The pilot was never transmitted, but was included as an extra on the DVD, the series was promoted across the UK with billboards of Barley ostensibly advertising a fictitious mobile telephone, the Wasp T12 Speechtool. Barleys website, www. trashbat. co. ck, served as a site for the television series. The DVD of the series was released in October 2005, featuring all six episodes, a number of extras, the artwork in question is largely a parody of prolific graffiti artist Banksy by Shynola. According to Digital Spy, Nathan Barley was a flop when it originally aired and it pulled in 700,000 viewers and a 3% share

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Four Lions
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Four Lions is a 2010 British black comedy film, directed by Chris Morris in his directorial debut, and written by Morris, Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong. The film is a satire following a group of homegrown terrorist jihadis from Sheffield, South Yorkshire. A group of radicalised young British Muslim men aspire to be suicide bombers, while Omar and Waj travel to an Al Qaeda-affiliated training camp in Pakistan, Barry recruits a reluctant fifth member, Hassan. The training trip ends in disaster when Omar attempts to shoot down an American drone and accidentally destroys part of the camp, however, Omar uses the experience to assert authority on his return to Britain. The group begins acquiring materials for making improvised explosive devices but disagree about what to target, Barry wants to bomb a local mosque as a false flag operation to radicalise the moderates, but Omar considers this idiotic. Faisal suggests blowing up a branch of the pharmacy chain Boots, Hassan allows an oblivious neighbour into their safe house, the group suspect they have been compromised and transport their volatile explosives to a new location in grocery bags. Faisal trips up while crossing a field and is killed in the explosion and this causes a row among the remaining four, who disband, they later reconcile, and Omar decides to target the upcoming London Marathon. Wearing mascot costumes to conceal their explosives, they drive to London, Waj expresses doubts about the morality of their plot, but Omar convinces him and the group parts ways to detonate at separate locations. Hassan loses his nerve and tries to alert police officers. This causes the police to search for the remaining three, Omar has a change of heart, feeling guilt about manipulating the easily led Waj into dying for a cause he doesnt understand, and attempts to prevent the attack. Police snipers receive Omars description and shoot at him as he attempts to blend in with the runners, Omar eventually contacts Waj from his mobile phone but is attacked by Barry, who swallows the phones SIM card. However, Barry begins to choke on it, provoking a passer-by to carry out the Heimlich manoeuvre and in the process detonate his bomb, Waj is cornered by police in a kebab shop and takes the staff hostage. Omar borrows a phone and attempts to him down, but his call is interrupted when the police charge in. Confused, Waj detonates his bomb, killing himself and the officers, distraught, Omar walks into an empty pharmacy and blows himself up. Riz Ahmed as Omar, the only competent jihadi in his terrorist cell, Kayvan Novak as Waj, the cousin of Omar, although stupid, he has enough sense to consult Omar or Barry before making decisions. Nigel Lindsay as Barry, a rash convert with an explosive temper, adeel Akhtar as Faisal, a complete idiot who always trusts Barry. Has a father who may have dementia as he sees creatures that are not there, arsher Ali as Hassan, a rapper who joins the cell after Barry witnesses him pretending to blow himself up at a conference. In a separate interview, he asserts that the research predated the 7 July 2005 London bombings, It was an attempt to figure it out, to ask, Whats going on with this

Chris Morris (satirist)
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Christopher J Chris Morris is an English comedian, writer, director, actor, voice actor, and producer. He is known for his humour, surrealism, and controversial subject matter. His tendency to avoid the media spotlight has seen him become one of the more enigmatic figures in British comedy, in the early 1990s, Morris teamed up with his radio produc

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Morris in 2010.

On the Hour
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On the Hour was a British radio programme that parodied current affairs broadcasting, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1991 and 1992. On the Hour featured the first appearance of Coogans character Alan Partridge as the Sports Desk reporter and it did fool many people, with some listeners ringing in to complain about how the anchor treated his guest

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On the Hour double cassette cover featuring Chris Morris, 1992. On the back is the motto "Man is only 90% water, but On the Hour is 100% news!"

Why Bother? (radio show)
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Why Bother. is a comedy radio series made for BBC Radio 3, consisting of five 10-minute-long spoof interviews between Chris Morris and Peter Cooks character Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling. Recorded in late 1993, the show was originally broadcast from 10–14 January 1994, Cook received the sole writing credit whilst Morris also produced the series, alth

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Why Bother?

The Chris Morris Music Show
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The Chris Morris Music Show was a radio show presented by satirist Chris Morris and broadcast on BBC Radio 1 between June and December 1994. The show sparked controversy on several occasions, most notably when Chris Morris falsely announced the death of politician Michael Heseltine, each episode of The Chris Morris Music Show lasted approximately o

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v

The Day Today
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The Day Today is a British comedy television show which parodies television current affairs programmes, broadcast in 1994 on BBC2. For The Day Today, Peter Baynham joined the writing team, the principal cast of On the Hour was retained for The Day Today. The Day Today is composed of six episodes and a selection of shorter. The six half-hour episode

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Chris Morris in The Day Today

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One of The Day Today' s slogans: "Fact times importance equals news!"

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Doon Mackichan as Collaterlie Sisters

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The Currency Cat

Brass Eye
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Brass Eye is a British comedy series parodying the current affairs news programming of the mid-1990s. A series of six episodes aired on Channel 4 in 1997, the series was created by Chris Morris, written by Morris, David Quantick, Peter Baynham, Jane Bussmann, Arthur Mathews, Graham Linehan and Charlie Brooker and directed by Michael Cumming. Drugs

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DVD cover

Jam (TV series)
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Jam was a British horror/comedy sketch show, created, written, and directed by Chris Morris. It was broadcast on Channel 4 between 23 March and 27 April 2000 and it was based on the earlier BBC Radio 1 show, Blue Jam, and consists of a series of disturbing and surreal sketches, unfolding over an ambient soundtrack. Many of the sketches re-used the

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Cover of the British DVD release

Nathan Barley
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The series of six weekly episodes began broadcasting on 11 February 2005 on Channel 4. Nathan Barley, played by Nicholas Burns, is a webmaster, guerrilla filmmaker, screenwriter, DJ and in his own words, a self-facilitating media node. Whilst desperate to convince himself and others that he is the epitome of cool, Nathan is secretly terrified he mi

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Nathan Barley

Four Lions
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Four Lions is a 2010 British black comedy film, directed by Chris Morris in his directorial debut, and written by Morris, Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong. The film is a satire following a group of homegrown terrorist jihadis from Sheffield, South Yorkshire. A group of radicalised young British Muslim men aspire to be suicide bombers, while Omar and Wa